Various instruments and events within a healthcare enterprise can generate alarms for notifying point-of-care staff such as nurses and physicians of event and conditions of concern regarding patients. As more systems in the healthcare enterprise become computerized and networked, electronic alarms become more and more numerous and frequent. As clinicians become desensitized to frequent interruptions of these alarms, they often begin to ignore the alarms or even turn them off. This phenomenon is referred to as alarm fatigue.
Alarms should ideally be routed to the correct staff member. This is often complicated by staff assignment updates or modifications due to shift changes. Furthermore, alarms are not always routed to the most proximate, available, or appropriately skilled staff member to handle the alarm.
There is a need in the art for healthcare enterprise alarm and event management technologies that can intelligently impact the presentation and acknowledgement of alarms, messages, and notifications to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.